Hubris
by Daenerys Starcatcher
Summary: Inspired by another fic onsite  details in note at the beginning . Prime-verse, post-Partners.A bit of fusion canon in there, too. Sticky robot stuff.


_Rabid plotbunnies hurray. This is one of my older fics, and I figured I'd share. Inspired by fierceawakening's All That Remains. An excellent fic by an excellent author._

_Rating: M_

_Warnings: (I still hate doing this.) Violence, BDSM, D/s, stickyfacing, spark, human curse words and plenty of TF ones, flashback, and my ever popular one (possible disturbing imagery)_

_Characters: Megatron/Starscream (Star may be slightly OOC, but I'm aiming for as little of that as possible.)_

_Continuity: Prime-'verse._

_Disclaimer: Own nothing._

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><p>Hubris<p>

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><p>The meeting place was desolate. Any greenery that had once dared to show its face had long since been eradicated by the blistering Arizona sun. Dust swirled around silvery-grey pedes as Megatron watched the skies, not for the rather beautiful orangey-red sunset but for the one who had commed out of the blue, requesting a meeting.<p>

The one who'd left. More than left, really- Starscream had practically denounced the entire faction, had chosen to die rather than bear Megatron's touch any longer, had taken all that he'd worked for and thrown it away like scrap. The Seeker was still bound to life, though; he had not gone back to the Matrix. The Allspark fragment had thoroughly bound itself to his spark and as a consequence, he wouldn't stay offline unless he _chose _to.

For a long time, he had. He floated lazily between the realms of life and death, wandering, examining, and finally coming to a bitter yet beautiful realization: he wasn't where he should be.

Starscream loved- no, _more _than loved flight. It was the only time he felt at peace with himself, when he was one with the skies and hurtling through the air at speeds Earth aircraft could never dream of matching. He dove straight toward the ground in a controlled spiral, pulling up only at the last second to avoid splattering spare parts all over northern Arizona. The snap of gravity and his utter defiance of the force made him laugh aloud- for once a sound without an edge, no malice within its tone.

He slowed and began to shift in mid-air, thrusters providing a counterdrag and his wings snapped back with a _click_. He approached the other mech from some distance away, deliberately not powering up twin null rays despite the very real danger he was likely facing. This _was _the Slag-Maker, Lord of all Decepticons and an extremely formidable warrior, strong in processor, frame, and spark.

Starscream flicked his wings, the movement indicating submission to anyone conversant with the seekers of Vos. He folded long fingers before him.

"My lord."

Megatron's spinal strut stiffened. Bright red optics flashed the color of human blood, both beautiful and terrible in its intensity, yet he controlled his movements, only turning his head a few bare inches before speaking.

"Starscream." A tone almost as devoid of emotion as Soundwave's, and filled with about a dozen different feelings nonetheless.

"My lord, I-"

Megatron roared, turning to face the Seeker, and Starscream shrank into himself, optics widening at the sight.

"DON'T call me that. You do not have the _right _to call me that. You betrayed me for the final time, failed so utterly that there is almost nothing, _NOTHING _that could redeem you now. Tell me why I shouldn't slag you where you stand, right here, right now, traitor."

Starscream considered transforming and simply taking to the skies again; he knew he couldn't outfly a fusion cannon but he damned sure could outfly Megatron. If he survived the first shot, which wasn't likely. Besides, running would negate the whole purpose of this meeting.

"I'm sorry." Starscream forced out. It was likely the only sincere apology he'd made in literally vorns, and Megatron was almost willing to bet his fusion cannon that Starscream gagged on the words as he spoke them. He could tell that his former Second was telling the truth, though- he always had been able to read Starscream like a datapad anyway.

Megatron's answer was to power up his cannon, feeling energy dance up his arm into the weapon, fierce and beautiful. The business end began to glow a faint purple, heralding an imminent blast unless Megatron willed otherwise.

Starscream didn't move, he only watched with vaguely detached interest before focussing his optics on his former Lord once again.

"M-megatron. I am not the same as your- as your betrayer. I am different now. I come, knowing my place, my rightful place-"

Megatron interrupted again. "Is beneath my pede, grovelling in the dirt for your pathetic life." He was truly angry, almost irrationally so, and the whine of his cannon grew louder, his arm actually giving a split-second _tremble_ before Megatron once more regained control of his emotions, calming himself just enough to stop the berserker fury he could feel just below the surface. How _dare _he return, thinking that all would be as it was? Was Starscream that _stupid? _Was he that naïve?

"Soundwave! Soundwave has the proof, I told him!" Starscream squeaked, taking a step backward. As he did so, Megatron lunged forward, grabbing both of the Seeker's hands and pulling him literally off his pedes, causing him to fall _hard _onto his knees upon the dust-covered plateau where they had agreed to meet. Starscream whimpered almost silently, his sharp features twisted not into a scowl but into an expression of near-relief.

Relief was _not _what Megatron was trying to evoke. He glared down at the kneeling Seeker and dropped his hands as if the metal had burned him.

In a way, it had. A dozen scenes flickered through Megatron's processor, all featuring Starscream, all invariably violent but there was something _else_ beneath it all, a reason for this dance of destruction that they'd been a part of for so very long. Megatron shoved that away, far within himself, and pressed the barrel of his fusion cannon to Starscream's helm.

Starscream winced, talking feverishly, his voice slightly less annoying than before his resurrection.

"My lord, _please! _Listen to me! I have changed! I have no desire to see you offlined, I-i _regret, _yes, _**regret **_the things I have done in the past, and-and I come to you now to prove my devotion to you, to show you the truth." He was almost babbling in fear and anxiety at this point; Megatron's expression didn't change once during the whole speech.

He didn't fire, though. He held back the destructive energy, figuring he could blast the Seeker _after _he finished his pointless attempt at redemption.

Starscream wrapped his arms around Megatron's thighs, nuzzling his sharp features on the inside. Megatron didn't stop him, only watched, as if he were both a passive observer and the participant. Star's silver glossa peeked out and he gave a tentative lick up toward Megatron's upper interface panel, which earned him a cuff upside the helm and a feral growl.

"You may not touch me. You lost that when you destroyed yourself, when you grabbed for your precious _independence. _I have no time for regrets, Starscream; this is a war, and there _are _no regrets in war."

"M-master...-"

"_**You will NOT." **_The vehemence was mystifying, the tone quite unlike any Starscream had _ever _heard from his former Lord, but it was undeniably the _truth_, an _order _if there ever was one, and Starscream had already chosen his path.

He fell silent, head laying on one of Megatron's knee joints. The heavy weight of the cannon shifted, almost becoming unbearable; Starscream could feel the incredible heat generated by the weapon begin to leave a faint scorch on his helm.

Then it left entirely.

"Get off me." Megatron sounded almost tired, but his eyes glowed as brightly as ever and his cannon was still charged.

Starscream stared upward and made a choice.

"I won't." With that, he grabbed Megatron's legs more firmly and licked up the side of his calf, lingering on the knee joint. "If I have to prove myself in _this _way then I will."

"You will _not_." Megatron glowered. He reached down, fully intending to pull the Seeker physically off his legs but Starscream captured the hand in both of his, deftly running his clawtips over the palm and planting a wet kiss in the middle. He moved to a finger, nibbling the claw as if it were energon candy, drawing it in like a spike and sucking hard.

Megatron bit his lips hard enough to draw energon as he forcefully jerked his hand from the Seeker's lipplates.

"I should kill you. You are pathetic, a puling, whining little _bitch _who comes crawling back once he has nowhere to go. I have no fucking TIME for this, you fool!" Starscream hadn't known that Megatron even _knew _the fleshies' curse words. It made it sound that much more crude and forceful.

"You don't trust me. Fine. Look into my spark. You know I cannot lie during a merge." Starscream was desperate, seeing all that he'd ever truly needed flying away with every word.

"Why should I share spark with a traitor like _you_?"

"Because you've done it a million times already, once more won't kill you." Starscream automatically replied, a hint of his normal sarcastic humor in his voice.

Megatron was determined to end this one way or another and _quickly, _too- he really _didn't _have time to frag around with a half-addled Seeker with a penchant for backstabbing. He stood over the smaller mech and his chest plates thundered open, revealing his spark, still scarred, still filled by Dark Energon, purportedly the blood of the Chaos Bringer himself. Starscream's chest panel flew open as well and he greedily reached toward Megatron, who bent to one knee, pushed the Seeker flat on the ground, and hurtled a bolt of energy straight into the mech's spark, a bolt composed of pent-up charge and the roiling chaos that was in Megatron's normally controlled mind. Starscream let out a weak cry, throwing his head back against the ground hard enough that he actually _felt _it, and began the difficult process of showing just how sincere he was.

_::I'm not too good to be true, and I'm still the Starscream you remember. I am just both more and less than I once was.::_

_::That makes less than no sense.:;_

_::My **lord**, it does. I was resurrected. Possibly for the last time...I don't know how long this Allspark fragment will sustain me. I decided I would **not **let petty hubris stand in my way, not this time. ::_

Megatron actually stopped to listen for a brief moment, his spark swirling tendrils of power toward Starscream with every pulse.

Seeing that Megatron hadn't written him off _yet_, Starscream continued.

_::Don't think this is ...that this is more than it is. I __**belong **__with you, I gave myself __**to **__you, and...:; _Starscream's spark undulated, sending a tendril straight into Megatron.

_::Do not remember me as I once was; instead, take me for who I am today.:: _

Megatron shook his head at this, deciding that the only way he would get a straight answer from this lying, scheming mech was to find it for himself. Gritting his denta, he pushed himself as close as possible to Starscream, merging their sparks completely and totally for the first time in _vorns._

Starscream gasped as he felt the presence, the sheltering bitter feeling of Megatron, the freezing heat and utter presence of the mech that ruled him, like it or not. It hurt, of course; Megatron's inner fire cleansed and consumed all that it touched, leaving a quivering wreck behind.

Megatron then _saw: want need desire trust(?) need need need... _a litany of half-formed thoughts and incomplete feelings ran over him in a torrent of heat.

_::My Lord, I am __**not **__as I was. Only time will prove this. All I ask...all I __**beg, **__is this chance. I will show you the truth of me. I will be what you ..what you n-::_

_::Don't say it.:: _It was most definitely an order.

The energy of the sparkmerge crackled and licked into the crevices of armor, with clawtips following in a long-remembered dance of ruthless desire that suddenly flared between the two on the dusty ground. Starscream moaned incoherently, unconsciously bucking his hips into Megatron's pelvic plating, raking claws down his back in a practiced pattern. Megatron snarled and grabbed Starscream's wings and _pulled _down, scoring the metal with his own claws and drawing precise lines of energon that ran together in a delicate branch pattern. The scent was _not _the same, similar yes, but different, and that single fact caused Megatron's optics to widen. He dragged his claws through the delicate infrastructure on Starscream's back, right where his wings met his body, and the Seeker erupted with a scream of unadulterated pleasure. He dug in deeper, and felt the mech's lower plating slick up with hot lubricant in almost an instant.

"M-m-megatron! I-i-i _need..."_

_"_You twisted slut." Megatron said, not unkindly.

"_Your _twisted slut, if you'll have me." Starscream hissed.

Megatron had actually missed that. He tore into his Seeker's plating, nearly wrenching it out of position permanently. He jammed two thick fingers into the dripping valve, grinding his thumb against a cluster of sensors just on the rim of Starscream's valve. Star began riding his hand, wordless cries coming from thin lips, and it was so _tight, _so _wet_, and so _good _that Megatron thrust a times before withdrawing his hand and replacing it with thick spike already dripping prefluid freely. He thrust past the impossibly tight entrance, feeling something _give_, and he laughed aloud.

"You've never interfaced in this body, Starscream?" An answering flare passed through their sparks, tendrils weaving in time with Megatron's rapid thrusts, and Starscream wrapped his legs firmly around his Leader and thrust with him shamelessly, crying out in an almost constant keen.

Megatron regained control of the sparkmerge; he gathered energy and hurled it at the Seeker in time with his long, slow, impossibly deep and _hard _thrusts. Megatron heard a low groan and it took a moment to realize it came from him. Starscream was virtually flooding the area between slender thighs with lubricant, the scent another indicator that Starscream had told the truth, for once.

_"Slag, _Megatron, please, my Lord my master my...m-my..." Words failed him as a particularly forceful sparkbolt pinned him as much as Megatron's wonderfully invasive spike. Megatron growled possessively, carefully not allowing himself to fall into relative complacency, not...quite...yet...

Starscream's valve went into insanely fast and frantic spasms as overload crashed into him, screaming his lover's name for anyone within fifty kliks to hear. He grabbed Megatron's left hand, the one that he'd been fingered with, and pushed the digits into his mouth, all three at once, licking his own essence from the tips as if it were the finest high grade.

Megatron let out a long, loud cry, wordless and full of triumph and victory and release blended with a fair dose of desire, and their sparks flared more brightly than Cybertron on a Saturday night before whimpering back to their respective owners, a tendril almost refusing to separate.

It wasn't clear whose that was.

Megatron lay atop the Seeker, _his _Seeker, and unseen by Starscream a very small smile touched his lips before he schooled his features back to neutrality and ground Starscream's wings into Earth's dirt. He screeched in indignation and pain, twisting to try and release himself.

"_That _is only the beginning of your punishment, Starscream. Did you think you could waltz back in and resume as you once were? You are an _idiot." _

Starscream smirked. It seemed that some things were already starting to get back to normal.

_~fin~_

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